Swamp Dogs: House of Crows #1
Black Caravan/Scout Comics 2021
Written by J.M. Brandt & Theo Prasidis
Illustrated by Kewber Baal
Coloured by Ruth Redmond
Lettered by Steve Wands
They came from the swamp... the scummiest squad of Confederate soldiers, brought back to life by powerful Voodoo magic. They crave power, carnage, and female flesh! They are the Swamp Dogs! Now, young lovers Ayana and Violet, and their friends from the goofy stoner metal band The Grunch, will unknowingly fall into their ghoulish nest. Bear witness to a rollicking gorefest straight out of the shocking grindhouse and revengeful blaxploitation of the 1970s, and the cult horror classics of the 1980s... with a modern twist.
Well alright I’m always a sucker for a zombie story and what better place for a group of Confederate soldiers to be resurrected than a dirty, nasty old swamp? So what I am hoping we’ll learn is why these soldiers, what triggers their rise from the grave and what will send them back into the earth? It’s fundamentals 101 I suppose and I’m hoping that over the course of the story all these questions will be answered and then some. From what we see here it looks like some things are alluded to but I can’t wait to see the full story unfold as the swamp once more begins to run red with blood.
I am very much enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented extremely well. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does wonders in bringing us their personalities. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the paes revealing more of the story the more we want to know.
I’m a fan of the way that we see this being structured as well as how we see the layers within the story begin to emerge and grow. What these layers do very nicely is open up avenues to be explored as the story moves forward and they add some really interesting depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is exceedingly well achieved.
The interiors here are interesting and have definitely piqued my curiosity. There is a more traditional comics feel to the work we see which I wasn’t expecting but appreciate nonetheless. The linework is clean, crisp and strong and how it works with the varying weights and techniques that we see to bring about the detail we see within the work is fantastic stuff. I like that we see backgrounds utilised as we do throughout, we could always use a few more, and how they expand and enhance the moments. They also work well within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show an extremely talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show a strong eye for how colour works.
So I’m not entirely convinced about Violet, there’s something there I can’t quite put my finger on but I’ll wait and see how the story plays out, who knows I could be totally wrong. It is rare but it's happened before. At a fancy dress party we’ve got the band and party goers in dressed up and while the music didn’t awaken the dead something else has and while the setting is a bit familiar that’s okay I can’t wait to sink my teeth into the carnage that’s about to come!
Black Caravan/Scout Comics 2021
Written by J.M. Brandt & Theo Prasidis
Illustrated by Kewber Baal
Coloured by Ruth Redmond
Lettered by Steve Wands
They came from the swamp... the scummiest squad of Confederate soldiers, brought back to life by powerful Voodoo magic. They crave power, carnage, and female flesh! They are the Swamp Dogs! Now, young lovers Ayana and Violet, and their friends from the goofy stoner metal band The Grunch, will unknowingly fall into their ghoulish nest. Bear witness to a rollicking gorefest straight out of the shocking grindhouse and revengeful blaxploitation of the 1970s, and the cult horror classics of the 1980s... with a modern twist.
Well alright I’m always a sucker for a zombie story and what better place for a group of Confederate soldiers to be resurrected than a dirty, nasty old swamp? So what I am hoping we’ll learn is why these soldiers, what triggers their rise from the grave and what will send them back into the earth? It’s fundamentals 101 I suppose and I’m hoping that over the course of the story all these questions will be answered and then some. From what we see here it looks like some things are alluded to but I can’t wait to see the full story unfold as the swamp once more begins to run red with blood.
I am very much enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented extremely well. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does wonders in bringing us their personalities. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the paes revealing more of the story the more we want to know.
I’m a fan of the way that we see this being structured as well as how we see the layers within the story begin to emerge and grow. What these layers do very nicely is open up avenues to be explored as the story moves forward and they add some really interesting depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is exceedingly well achieved.
The interiors here are interesting and have definitely piqued my curiosity. There is a more traditional comics feel to the work we see which I wasn’t expecting but appreciate nonetheless. The linework is clean, crisp and strong and how it works with the varying weights and techniques that we see to bring about the detail we see within the work is fantastic stuff. I like that we see backgrounds utilised as we do throughout, we could always use a few more, and how they expand and enhance the moments. They also work well within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show an extremely talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show a strong eye for how colour works.
So I’m not entirely convinced about Violet, there’s something there I can’t quite put my finger on but I’ll wait and see how the story plays out, who knows I could be totally wrong. It is rare but it's happened before. At a fancy dress party we’ve got the band and party goers in dressed up and while the music didn’t awaken the dead something else has and while the setting is a bit familiar that’s okay I can’t wait to sink my teeth into the carnage that’s about to come!
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